A New Beginning?

That's what the Colts are looking to do as they start their second round of 4 games. The Colts, like many NFL teams, divide the NFL season into manageable 4 game stretches. Obviously during their first stretch the Colts finished with an underachieving 2-2 record. Many speculate that they could easily be 0-4, however, I will note that they could also be 3-1 (a ref's mistake in the last minutes of the Jacksonville game gave the Colts another L). Do they deserve a 3-1 record? Do they even deserve a 2-2 record? It depends on what we mean when we define 'deserve'.

I'm sick and tired of hearing that teams don't 'deserve' to win. In an era that is so caught up with fantasy points, numbers, and stats, we do very rarely pay attention to the fact that the NFL champion is crowned on one thing: winning when it counts, no matter the circumstances. In fact, the last 3 super bowl champions have been labeled 'underdogs' and 'in trouble' by various professional sporting news pundits before they won the big game. Pittsburgh did it in '05 with the lowest Wild-card spot; Indianapolis did it just one month after they were labeled as having a 'soft defense' and 'in trouble' because of their 300 yards of rushing they gave up to Jacksonville; and the Giants did it with everyone labeling Eli as a bust, and improbably beating major NFC 'powerhouse' before dethroning THE talk of the league last year, the New England Patriots.

So the question that comes to my mind is this: have we not learned from the past? Have we not learned that fantasy points and game stats, especially this early in the year, have little to do with winning an NFL championship? Heck, even your record doesn't really matter once you hit the playoffs any more. Sure, there are some important stats to pay attention to. When you give away more turnovers than you take away, then you are going to have a hard time winning. When you get out rushed by over 100 yards, you are going to have a hard time winning. When you only possess the ball for 35% of the game, you will have a harder time winning. But if I have learned anything in following the NFL for the last decade it is this: stats don't win a game, mentally tough teams find a way to win a game.

The success of an NFL season is determined by mental toughness, team growth and learning, doing the little things well, and coming together at the right time. I'm not saying that other things are not important (it is important to run the ball, stop the run, etc.), but the NFL champion is going to NEED to find a way to win. The NFL champion will learn from their lessons during the season. The NFL champion will do the little things better than anyone else when it gets to crunch time.

We can go along talking about how many yards from scrimmage Reggie Bush is going to have from week to week, we can talk about how many rushing touchdowns AP is going to have this year, but we can't start talking about how this team or that team is going to win the championship because they out rush every team. It's not about the stats. Football is simpler than what we've made it: the team that has more points after 60min wins. Bottom line. Football isn't about the stats. You either find a way to win or you lose.

Going back to the Colts, to answer the question if they deserve their 2-2 record, I say they do. They deserve to win because they didn't give up, they played through 2 games, they finished well, and they finished better than the other team. Both games they won did not look pretty, they did not do a lot of things well, and they know they cannot continue to play like that. But they did one thing: they finished the game better than the other team did. They found a way to somehow win, despite making multiple mistakes.

Will they win another championship this year? Some people are even asking if they can even make the playoffs this year? It is too early, and there is too many games left to even guess one way or another. Although, they seem to still know how to win a game even when they make multiple mistakes. That kind of makes youth think... I wonder what the game will look like when they actually are clicking on all cylinders.